Search

Sign up For Email Updates

Posts Tagged ‘Gross Out Camps’

No two words better describe the bond between carnivorous plants and the insects they attract and then devour. For centuries, these plants have attracted not only the attention of their prey, but also of humans fascinated by the concept of flora feasting on fauna. In the 1800s, Naturalist Charles Darwin conducted experiments on several species, stimulating them with raw meat, drops of milk and bits of hard-boiled eggs.

Insects that wander onto the lips of these cavities topple in, sliding down slippery inner walls into pools of liquid that drown the creatures. Digestion then begins. It’s an elegant death trap, as Gross Out campers discovered when they dissected the pitchers open.

Campers participated in the dissection of Sarracenia leucophylla and Sarracenia rubra var. to more about the characteristics of these carnivorous plants.